Google Launches Home Service Ads in USA

Google AdWords is an ideal set up for large businesses and those in retail. However, for smaller tradespeople, it doesn’t always hit the spot. In the USA Google has launched a new advertising service aimed at this demographic.

The new service is known as Google Home Services and comes complete with a cut-down mobile app interface that allows the user to manage their ads and customer responses and leads on the go. It is also host to an interesting new variation on the traditional advert auction.

Appointments and Ads Managed in One App

Service providers who are enrolled in the scheme can manage their campaigns and appointments through an app, available on iOS and Android. The typically small businesses can control the number of leads they receive through the program by pausing and enabling their ads in the app according to their own availability. Ratings can come via Google My Business or from leads received through the program. Google analyses the review to ensure that the review is fair.

For the PPC professional, it is interesting that the traditional bidding auction has been replaced by a cost per lead model. The leads are priced by Google and businesses can see the price of a lead when they sign up in the app. The system appears to balance the cost of jobs against the overall demand for the service. Advertisers set a weekly budget determined by the number of leads they want to receive. Google has not announced exactly what the algorithm is looking for, but it does appear to have the ability to price jobs differently to contracts in different parts of the city, recognising the costs of travelling and the profit differentials in completing the job.

Service Targets Plumbers, Locksmiths and Other Emergency Trades

The service is currently available in 17 cities in the USA and aims to launch in 30 more by the end of 2017. There is no indication on when or if the service will roll out into the UK marketplace. For now business here will have to continue to use PPC Ads, but the changes in the United States are surely a guide for the future of the sector in the UK.